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RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us on HackerTube: recommended by 11 Hacker News commenters across 10 separate months, 2010–2022.

An RSA Animate whiteboard adaptation of Dan Pink's talk on what motivates people at work. It argues that beyond simple tasks, autonomy, mastery and purpose drive performance more than money.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it in discussions of pay, management, and motivation as the standard short explanation of autonomy, mastery and purpose.

people recommended it
11
separate months
10
strong recommendations
2
discussed on HN
2010–2022
“the "Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us" video is a great rebuttal of this idea.”
— hasenj, Sep 2010, in “Ask HN: What's the big deal with startups anyways...”

What HN commenters said

20 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

btillyMar 2014Strongly recommends

The previous manager was very good at "leading through inspiration". He made people feel good about themselves, feel like they were learning, and feel like they were making a difference both for their corner of the world and the whole organization. The new manager was good at keeping track of things and micromanaging. But the most inspiring line she could come up with was, "You still have a job." (I wish I was kidding.) She also had an unfortunate habit of lying badly and often, with a resulting destruction of trust. But that aspect I'm too bitter about at the moment to want to discuss. To see why it matters, go watch ▶ this video . I believe that its message is not complete (for instance I've noticed that correlations between stress and mental performance is highly dependent upon the mental task you are doing), but what it says about motivation is spot on. The key factors are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Good leaders can give people the sense of all three while still getting them to do what the organization needs them to do. Micromanagement makes it clear what the organization wants, but destroys motivation.

in “Why good managers are so rare” · View on HN

MrDunhamJan 2011Strongly recommends

There's a fantastic video on What Motivates Us. Link is [video] ▶ this video . One of the things they showed an inverse correlation on amount someone gets paid and what they produce when it's anything above menial labor. Highly worth a watch.

in “Inequality in Equalland” · View on HN

Kim_BruningJan 2022Recommends

I'm still around thinking about my next answer. In the mean time, have a video about drive/what motivates us by Dan Pink for RSA. ▶ this video

in “Basic income would not reduce people’s willingness to work” · View on HN

balls187Feb 2014Recommends

For the record, I 100% believe in paying people what they are worth. Determining that worth isn't an exact science. I also believe that after a certain point, money has less appeal to people--that is, people are no longer motivated by the money. By asking someone what they want, I'd like them to tell me what it is they need to be happy, so I can offer it to them. The following video makes some pretty good points along that line: ▶ this video

in “By The Time You Give Them a Raise, They’re Already Out The Door” · View on HN

jtchangJan 2014Recommends

Chris mentions the 3 things that motivate people. Good video about this from RSA Animate if you haven't seen it yet: ▶ this video

in “Twitter SVP Chris Fry Breaks Down How His Engineering Org Works” · View on HN

danbergerDec 2011Recommends

He is obviously not motivated by money and most people aren't when you dig deeper. Many geeks want to achieve mastery, succumb new challenges, etc. I recommend watching this [1] 10m video out about what drives us to understand this a little more. [1] ▶ this video

in “Bingo Card Creator (etc) Year In Review 2011” · View on HN

Show 14 more comments
szanyJul 2011Recommends

My instantaneous gut reaction is discomfort. These are all good things, but the tone puts me off. As someone who appreciates autonomy, I would rather be given an objective with advice on how to attain it than rules to follow. Even if the content is the same, it shows more respect. In this case, the objective is simply situation awareness ( [link] ) for both parties. The advice is to ask, debrief, and warn. Dan Pink gave a good 10-minute talk about this sort of thing: ▶ this video

in “When you're in a team that I lead, there are 3 things that I'd like to ask you” · View on HN

tayip9Jul 2011Recommends

This might fit in with Dan Pink's talk on 'Drive': ▶ this video Passion can be driven by incentives outside of salary.

in “Ask HN: Is passion a fair thing to ask for from an employee?” · View on HN

sgentleJun 2011Recommends

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey is a pretty seminal personal management book. It's my top recommendation in terms of "foundational" material. It's not got much in the way of practical tools, but the ideas are applicable everywhere. I would recommend Drive by Dan Pink if you're interested in learning more about creative motivation. It's pretty short, and actually very well summarised here: ▶ this video Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister is very good programmer-specific management material. They cite a lot of work benchmarking the productivity of different workplaces, so it's very "x is good, x is bad". Jim Collins' Good to Great is an examination of businesses that succeed vs fail, and the attributes that get them there, it's essentially an extended summary of a longitudinal study he and his team did of businesses that outperformed the stock market by a high factor over 10 years. It's more leadership than management, but still very useful. One that I haven't read yet (damn my stupidly big reading list) but recommend on reputation alone is First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. Here's a summary: [link] I share your frustration about blah-blah blog posts. With the exception of First, Break All The Rules (which I haven't read yet) and 7 Habits (which I forgive because it's so damn good), the books I mention are based on actual research which is cited in the book, not just some dude going "I think this because I know stuff".

in “Ask HN: No intrinisic motivation to build stuff” · View on HN

hasenjSep 2010Recommends

Exactly, the "Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us" video is a great rebuttal of this idea. ▶ this video

in “Ask HN: What's the big deal with startups anyways...” · View on HN

dreadlabsJun 2010Recommends

I'm note sure if its my favourite but its one i find really interesting. Daniel Pink's talk on Drive, what makes people motivated to perform in the workplace. Really good for employers. There is a TED talk on it and i've seen it but i actually like the RSA animate one better which is essentially the same talk. ▶ this video

in “Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?” · View on HN

chrisweeklyJan 2022Cites it

Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose were the three job satisfaction pillars in a popular RSAnimate whiteboard presentation video a few years ago... and it resonated with me (while feeling incomplete, given it omits social / interpersonal factors). EDIT: Found the video: ▶ this video

in “How to Be Useless” · View on HN

jokoonMay 2021Cites it

you said > hiring good people would be a roll of the dice and I'd even say that our whole economy wouldn't be able to function. > That's just a well accepted fact Says who? ▶ this video [link] [link] [link] [link]

in “Horses and Sparrows: The myth of 'trickle down' economics” · View on HN

toomuchtodoOct 2016Cites it

Happiness is feeling useful/having purpose (autonomy, mastery, purpose) [1], meeting your basic needs (~$75K/year research shows [2]), and spending time with friends and loved ones [3] [4]. [1] ▶ this video [2] [link] [3] [link] [4] [link]

in “Google’s former happiness guru's three-second brain exercise for finding joy” · View on HN

milesfJun 2016Cites it

Provide an environment that give workers autonomy, mastery, and purpose (see Daniel Pink's work title Drive ▶ this video ). You provide those three things and a sane group of people, happiness will follow.

in “Why Team Happiness Can Be the Wrong Thing to Aim for [video]” · View on HN

eloffJan 2016Cites it

Typically movie stars negotiate a tiny % of gross revenue in their contract. They used to negotiate for % of profit, but studios got very good at fiddling with the numbers for the film until a successful movie had nearly no profit. I don't see why that can't be done for software engineers. That is essentially dividends though, and it's obvious why growth companies don't want to do that. But it's also not clear that stock options have the intended motivating effect (it's not even clear that increases in salary or some kind of profit sharing would have the intended effect either[1]) I think it's clear that stock options are sub-optimal for the intended purpose, but it's not obvious to me how to fix that. [1] ▶ this video

in “Open Guide to Equity Compensation” · View on HN

Ygg2Jun 2014Cites it

I'd argue it's not. People that are paid most to do a job that isn't repetitive manual labor have worst performance scores, time and time again. So unless CEOs are paid to manually bolt things or throws ball into a hoop, they probably aren't doing well because, in part, they are given money. Money introduces fear (i.e. fear that you won't make enough money or lose your position with lots of money) and that leads to tunnel vision. People give more performance if you give them more autonomy, mastery and purpose. ▶ this video

in “The Highest-Paid CEOs Are The Worst Performers, New Study Says” · View on HN

PkeodFeb 2013Cites it

▶ this video High enough salary + great benefits to the point where needs are met are ideal. "Rockstars" may be able to negotiate with companies who want to hire those kinds of people, but if you are hiring only the best people and not the best people for your company then your culture will suffer. I like the way Valve does things. No rockstar culture like WallSt or Hollywood has. Everyone gets even footing and credit. You can earn more if your peers agree that you deserve it - people there are not chasing rewards - they are doing what they love well and being rewarded for it. It seems to work very well for them and other co-op like companies.

in “Netflix's Culture Document (2009)” · View on HN

rguzmanApr 2012Cites it

current research suggests that the feeling of making constant progress and being appreciated at work are the most important motivator for people. ▶ this video

in “Show HN: iDoneThis+AwesomenessReminders, Get Work Done, Get Awesomeness” · View on HN

thunkJun 2010Cites it

> “There is no reason that money can't be an effective motivator, or that grades can't motivate students in school,” he said. Ok, well then what about this [1] video from this [2] submission? This makes me think about something else entirely: It should be easier to draw connections between submissions like these. It should be easier to link repetitive discussions into a cohesive whole. It should be easier to build something grand from the time we invest in social news communities. As it is, it often feels like a waste of time. Someone please build this. My time's spoken for. [1] ▶ this video [2] [link] Edit: It'd be somewhere around the intersection of Stack Overflow, Wikipedia and HN

in “Intrinsic motivation doesn't exist” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Management, leadership & organizationsPsychology & human behaviordan pinkautonomy mastery purposemanagementincentivesrsa animate